HCM City (VNS/VNA) -Along with its rapid economic growth, Vietnam’s electricity demand is alsoincreasing strongly, at around 10 percent a year, causing huge pressure on theenergy sector, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Truong Thanh Hoai, directorgeneral of the ministry’s industry department, said the country’s totalelectricity capacity reached nearly 50,000 MW last year to more or less meetdemand.

Vietnam’s power capacity is thesecond highest among Southeast Asian countries and 30th inthe world, he said.

Speaking at a conference on Vietnam’sstrategy for developing green energy and energy saving until 2020 in Ho Chi MinhCity last week, Nguyen Phuong Dong, Deputy Director of the city’sDepartment of Industry and Trade, said the growth in energy demand in thecountry is much higher than in places like Japan and Europe.

“This requires Vietnam to haveefficient solutions for energy saving and develop new sources of energy andrenewable.”

Hoai said: “The Government hasissued policies to encourage the development of renewable energy such as wind,solar and biomass to reduce adverse impacts on the environment and encourageproduction of energy-efficient devices.”

Nguyen Anh Tuan of the Instituteof Energy said: “Vietnam has diverse fossil energy resources like oil, gasand coal as well as renewable energy sources such as biomass, solar and wind.”

Currently hydropower and coal arethe largest sources and would remain so in the short term, he told theconference.

Tuan said the Government revisedthe Power Development Plan for a seventh time in 2016 to increase the share ofrenewables like biomass, solar and wind to reduce the gap between demand andsupply, and is now preparing for an eighth revision.

“The power generation structurehas changed with greater reliance on renewable energy.”

As a country with a tropicalmonsoon, and sun and wind all year round, Vietnam has great potential fordeveloping renewable energy.

Talking about the advantages andchallenges related to solar energy generation in HCM City, Nguyen Ngoc TuongVi, acting director of the HCM City Power Corporation’s sales department, saidthe city has great potential for solar power, especially rooftop solar whilethe Government and the city have policies in place to develop rooftop solar andstrong support from the public and businesses.

But the high cost of installingsolar rooftop panels discourages people and there are a range of products interms of origin, quality and warranty, confusing them, she said. 

There are no national technicalstandards or standard specifications related to rooftop solar systems, and noguidelines on dealing with used solar panels and other issues, she said, addingthat the Government should soon announce prices for solar power.

To encourage solar powergeneration, the Government announced that projects connected to thenational grid by June 30, 2019, could sell electricity to EVN at 9.35 US centsper kWh, but no information on how much had been revealed, she said.

The Government should alsopromulgate regulations for recycling used solar panels and national technicalstandards for rooftop solar, she said.

The conference was held on thesidelines of the International Exhibition on Electrical Technology andEquipment and the International Exhibition on Products, Technologies for EnergySaving and Green Power, which were held in HCM City from July 17 to 20.-VNS/VNA